A new DVD that helps people better understand dementia has been launched by Alzheimer’s Australia for consumers, family members and carers.
How dementia affects the brain and the person is a remake of Understanding Brain and Behaviour that was produced by Alzheimer’s Australia NSW in 2004.
Since then it has consistently been the single most requested resource for families and carers through Alzheimer’s Australia’s libraries.
“Despite a wealth of material available online, our clients have consistently requested something they can hold and watch together with their families to help them to understand what a diagnosis of dementia means,’ Manny Sayanos, Manager Consultancy and Learning, Alzheimer’s Australia Vic said.
“A range of organisations, including ourselves, have used the DVD in education work and have often seen participants having light bulb moments as a result of the insights it offers into how dementia affects the brain,” Mr Sayanos said.
Professor Richard Fleming, an Executive Director of the new Dementia Training Australia consortium, said the DVD helps people who have received a diagnosis of dementia to process the news and understand what it means.
“Receiving a diagnosis is overwhelming and there is lots of challenging information to absorb and understand,” he said.
“This DVD can be confronting and is to help families and carers to be able to go home, process the news and for them to be able to watch in their own time, again and again,” he said.
Health professionals, clients of Alzheimer’s Australia and Memory Clinics in Victoria will receive free copies of the DVD while anyone else can order it from vic.resources@alzheimers.org.au or phone 03 9816 5709.
